Railroad-spike



J. LUNDIE.

RAILROAD SPIKE.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 8.1918.

Patented Mar. 16,1920

ATTORNEY JOHN LUNDIE, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

RAILROAD-SPIKE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 16, 1920.

Application filed .Tune 8, 1918. Serial No. 238,830.

To all whom iii-may concern:

Be it known that 1, JOHN LUNDIE, a citizen of the United States,residing at New York, New York, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Railroad- Spikes, of which the following is a speci-'fication.

The present invention relates to railroad spikes of a new class or typein which the spike is not intended to be driven so far into It is wellknown that the standard or typical forms of railroad spikes are driveninto the tie until the head of each spike bears upon the base of therail.

Peculiarly constructed spikes have been suggested with the purpose ofproviding a spike which will not be partly drawn by the verticalvibrating action of the rail, but so far as I am aware no one hashitherto suggested the idea of aspecial provision on an ordinary orstandard spike which is intended to be normally driven into the tie tosuch a distance that the head of the spike is spaced away from the baseof the rail to start with, such spacing being for a distance about thesame as the head of the ordinary or standard spike, without such specialprovision, is withdrawn and spaced away from the rail-base and kept atsuch distance by the vertical vibration of the rail. Therefore, one ofthe objects of the present invention is to provide an ordinary orstandard railroad spike with special means which may be employed toinitially space the head of the spike away from the base of the rail bybringin such special means, only, in contact with t e rail-base.

The patented prior art discloses a spike with a head of s ecialconstruction, said head being forme by bending the thick body of thespike back and forth on itself .and allowing the extremity of said bodyto project radially from the shank to provide a resilient point ofcontact between'the, said specially constructed head and the rail-base.The objections to such a spike are overcome by the present invention,and with a View thereto other objects of the said invention are asfollows:

T 0 provide an ordinary or standard railroad spike with a relativelylight, lateral, resilient head-extension or tail, which is intended forthe uidance of the track-man in driving the spi e, who, when drivingsuch a spike, desires to keep the spike-head away from contact with therail-base, the bring ing of the said extension or tail in contact withthe rail-base indicating to said track-- man that the spike is drivenhome as far as desirable.

Another object is to allow by the resiliency of the said head-extensionor tail the lifting of the rail under flexure, due to passing wheelloads, which will not tend to draw the spike, but' will only bend thespringy or resilient extension at a point at that side of the head ofthe spike on which it is located, and which extension will spring backagainst the rail-base when the liftin action of the rail is released.Another 0 ject of the present invention is to so form the bottom surfaceof the said extension as to provide a minimum amount of, but ample,contact between it and the rail-base, as by convexly curvin the saidsurface, thus securing the requlsite touch on top of the rail. base eventhough the spike should be driven crooked.

These being among the objects of the present invention, the sameconsists of certain features of novelty to be hereinafter described andthen claimed. with reference to the accompanying drawings showing adesirable form of the invention and in which:

Figure 1 is a broken transverse sectional view of a rail and tie,showingthe improved spike in side elevation in use; and

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of said spike as viewed endwise of thelateral head-extension.

Referring to the drawings, the rail 10 is supported on tie 11. Therailroad spike comprises a shank 13, a head 14 and a point 15, thesebeing preferredly of the ordlnary sion is thin and attenuated relativelyto the head 14, said extension will be more or less springy orresilient.

As shown, the edge 17 of the spike-head 14: is continued by the edge 18of the integral extension or tail 16, said extension being curvedlongitudinally, in a direction away from the plane of edge 17 Also, asshown, the extension 16 is curved transversely or dished so as toprovide a transverse concavity 19 and a transverse, under, convexity 20.The low point or surface of the convexity 20 will thus provide a minimumarea of contact between. the said extension and the rail-base.-

The improved spike is usually driven into the tie until the low point orsurface at 20 bears fairly well on the rail-base, thus leaving aclearance or space, as at 21, between said base and the ordinaryspike-head 1a. This space corresponds substantially with the spacebetween the rail-base and the heads of spikes now in use on railways,after the latter have been more or less used.

i It is obvious that if the resilient extension should becomeinoperative for any reason, as by being broken off, the spike wouldstill have all the advantages of the ordinary or standard spike.

The invention is susceptible of modification as will be apparentto thoseskilled in the art, without departing from the spirit and scope thereofas claimed.

In conclusion it should be stated that by the term ordinary or standardas applied in the claims to the spike-head, I mean a solid headprojected from the shank, with the body of the. shank virtually runningthrough to the top of, the head, so that the mass of the metal of theshank, at the top of the head as it were, actually receives andtransmits the drivin blows in line with the axis of the spike, utthrough the solid metal of the spike.

What I claim as new is:

1. A railroad spike, comprising a pointed shank rovided with an ordinaryor standard spi e-head, that is, a solid head, which skirts orcircumambiently overhangs the shank of the spike, and a lateral,attenuated, resilient extension from, and integral with,

' said head, the sides of said extension gradually merging into the sideportions of said head.

2. A railroad spike, comprising a pointed shank provided with anordinary or standard spike-head, and a lateral resilient extension fromsaid head, said extension being transversely convex at the place whereit is to bear on the base of therail.

3. The combination with a railway rail and a tie, of a spike secured insaid tie and having an ordinary or standard spike-head, that is, a solidhead, which skirts or circumambiently overhangs the shank of the spike,said head having a lateral, attenuated, re-

silient extension, the sides of said extension gradually merging intothe side portions of said head, whereby said head is located over thebase of said rail and spaced away from it, and the underside only ofsaid extension bearing on said base.

JOHN LUNDIE.

